They should add supporting the Knicks as a way to honor world toilet day...and how bout those frenchies, "anti-pipi" walls...great.
http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/blogs/80days/2008/11/world-toilet-da.html#more
"There are lots of problems with public toilets in New York City," began a recent Times editorial, "starting with the fact that there aren't any."
The scolding, posted by the Gray Lady on The Board, went on to point out that while "New Yorkers have long been promised relief in the form of high-tech European toilets that take coins and clean themselves," the city's small number of demonstration models "have never been able to multiply to critical mass the way, say, fiberglass cows and Duane Reade drugstores have."
The situation is no better in Paris, where "hygiene workers have to clean an average 56,000 square metres of urine-splashed surfaces a month" and "the sight of dozens of men urinating on the walls of the Paris town hall" during last year's rugby World Cup so incensed Mayor Delanoe that he ordered the installation of 'anti-pipi' walls to fight back.
And in Britain, whose public toilets were once the envy of Europe, "hailed as marvels of Victorian municipal design," as many as 5,000 public lavatories have closed in the past decade, halving the number of conveniences. "There could hardly be a more urgent need for public money," groused the Daily Telegraph.
Indeed, the problem is so widespread that bloggers have been driven to wonder: "Are public toilets viable?"
Absolutely, says Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organization. Not only viable, but imperative, and we had better do something about their sorry condition if we want to hang around the planet much longer. That's why Sim has made it his mission to "raise the social status" of toilets and toilet attendants in all parts of the world.
According to the WTO, some 2.5 billion people, or 40 percent of the world population, lack basic sanitation. And of the billion or so people lucky enough to have sewerage systems, only about 30 percent have their sewage "treated in an environmentally acceptable way." The rest flows straight into gutters, rivers, or lakes.
We deserve better, says Sim, which is why the WTO has declared November 19 World Toilet Day, its purpose "a call to action for people to demand clean toilets for all." It is the organization's hope that the public and the "restroom community-at-large" will mark the day "to practice toilet etiquette" and make "a new declaration for the forthcoming year." A declaration, that is, to elevate the status of the toilets in our lives.
This is no joke. "If those systems go down," says a trustee of The Plumbing Museum in Watertown, Massachusetts, "civilization rapidly deteriorates. The day water stops coming out of the tap is the day civilization starts to crumble."
For ten ways to celebrate World Toilet Day, read on.
1. Check out "McDonald's Bathroom Attendant" at Improv Everywhere and send the link to all your friends.
2. Take a few seconds to think about the importance of plumbing in our lives while you check out these toilets from around the world.
3. Learn how to say "Where is the restroom?" in Turkmen at WorldToilet.info.
4. Donate an Ecosan toilet to a family of five.
5. Read about the World Toilet College in Singapore, which offers a restroom specialist training course designed "to overcome the daunting task of cleaning toilets and to bring the sparkle into toilet cleaning jobs."
6. Climb Mount Sinai, or take a virtual tour of loos with a view. Accompanying fun fact: Human beings, on average, spend a total of three years on the toilet.
7. If you happen to live near Watertown, Massachusetts, you might swing by The Plumbing Museum, which "stands as a tribute to the plumbers, engineers and inventors whose hard work and creative spirit have contributed so much to the betterment of our society."
8. Nominate a bathroom for the Golden Plunger Award.
9. Add a new toilet to Diaroogle.com, "the premier toilet search engine."
10. Visit Calgary, home of "the most expensive toilet on the planet."
The mayors of Paris and New York might do well to take a page from their British friends. To help bring back the glory days, the British Toilet Association sponsors a Loo of the Year Award, as well as a separate Attendant of the Year Award to honor "the cleaning staff who look after each facility--the unsung heroes and heroines."
